CURRENTS
A calm mind
Will the fighting ever stop?
Yes.
At least that's what the Dalai Lama said recently.
He said that we'd learn, through the searching for peace within ourselves, to be compassionate, and that the practice of compassion would calm our minds.
With our minds calm, he said, we'd be better able to rationally resolve our misunderstandings.
He said we have to let go of our anger, attachments, and resentments.
We have to become empty.
We have to be willing and eager to let go of what we become attached to.
So I took my camera and went into my backyard and took some photos.
They were blurry.
But I kept a calm mind. I used an art filter (paint daubs) and they look beautiful, to me.
But of course this wasn't to be about flowers and plants in my backyard.
Or maybe it was. Why wouldn't that be enough, in and of itself?
I've decided it is.
Flowers. In my, and your, backyard.
If I don't have a backyard, there will still be flowers.
One more reason to live.
Seek a calm mind. Let go of anger and resentment. Let go of attachments.
Become empty.
The Dalai Lama said that all religions are important and equal in that they seek peace.
They require of us that we treat each other as we would be treated ourselves.
He also said that now, with our planet having become so small, due to travel and the Internet and satellite communications and worldwide networks of information, we must realize that to hurt our neighbor is to hurt ourselves.
It's no longer a matter of a tribe or a village or even a nation.
It's a planetary concern.
We are all one family, he said.
Families quarrel, but they love each other, and they forgive.
When I say it, it sounds impossible.
When he says it, it sounds perfectly obvious, normal, and right.
That's why Tinzen gets the big bucks, I guess.